Seriously, I feel bad that I haven’t succeeded as much so I can’t help my family through a rough patch right now. I feel awful and guilty that in my late 20’s in NYC I can’t afford to leave my parents (second generation Brooklynite). Even though I’ve taken on food, internet/cable budgets, phones and electricity…

Yeah. I never understood that this wasn’t how every family worked (kids providing for parents once they got a good job) until I dated a dude who was super confused that I was excited to give my parents half of my yearly bonus. He was like “Do they make you do that? Do you owe them money?” and I was like “No, but I’m…

Black millennial still living with her parents (though I am a net contributor to living expenses) here. It actually makes me think of my response yesterday when an entertainment news team (both super white) got so excited and congratulatory towards Chris Hemsworth for paying off his parents’ debts. I was like, “That…

I’m surprised by all of them, too. I’m on the young end of Gen X, so cell phones were still a newish thing when I was in college (this was my phone until I was 21), and my parents paid for that phone until I was about 20. After that I had to pay my own cell bill and I have ever since. I can’t imagine being a bona fide…

Very important point. Family cell phone plans might be new, but the general idea of intergenerational wealth transfer is not.

I was a summer RA at a private women’s college that required me to live on campus while I was RAing (duh, right?). The thing was, instead of just taking my pay and dumping it in a coffer for my housing, like they did during the regular year, they wanted to pay me a monthly stipend with taxes taken out—which was less…

I came of age when my family was in dire straits financially, and it was rough. One year in college, I shared an on-campus apartment with 4 friends, one of whom showed up with a boatload of (nice, but largely unnecessary) stuff she had bought with her parents, and announced to all of us what our share was. Everyone…

I’m a little surprised at all the older millenials on their parents’ cell plans, because most of the boomers I know still think anything other than a bare bones landline is for “damned hippies”. I’ve seriously heard one say “If you’re not a drug dealer, why do you need a cell phone?”

When I was 15 my mother declared that my tenth grade back to school clothes were the last “Things” she would be providing for me, and it was now up to me to get myself things I needed. I was the first in my class to get a part time job, and as a result I missed out on all the get-togethers, etc that my friends had…

That is only if you add a raving mad dictator that demands that everyone should have equal opinions as well.

I’m getting to the point where I’m kicking myself for not writing millenial trend pieces based on my advanced age experiences (I’m 40) - I could be rich! Hahaha. No, millennials are not the only generation to get financial help from parents into adulthood, they did not invent the hook up culture, they were not the…

I don’t understand why you felt bad reaching out for help and why you’re so adamant you want tot make it all by yourself. In addition to love, I think emotional and financial support is one thing that is to be considered normal in a family. It goes both ways. And I can’t imagine any parent that would be willing to let…

I was gonna say: *way*back in the day, above a certain level of wealth, I think it was just sort of assumed that your parents would pay for things until they died and left you with the means to do so. It’s where half the plots in both Austen and Wodehouse come from.

And even for poorer people, especially for girls,…

I am an Old (Gen X), and my husband and I are the only one of our peers who didn’t get property purchased by parents, cars purchased by parents (in adulthood), or even who still live at their parents’ house.. and yes, we mean, in their 40s. A lot of them had their parents purchase them businesses like franchises or…

Yes! I grew up poor and worked really hard to get my degree and although I have never been a social conservative (quite the opposite) I did feel like I was exceptional and that my hard work got me from rural Mexico to a solid middle class life in the U.S. Then I started mentoring a young Chicana and saw that she’s not…

This was the reason I had to leave my liberal arts private school and come back home to finish my degree (and I was miserable there for other reasons.) My roommates constantly had help from mommy and daddy. Paying for tuition, putting money in their bank accounts, going on lavish vacations. I felt totally alienated…

Rich parents pay not only for nannies but for all those extra curricular a and “valuable experiences” that make white kids’ college application stand out and are a very good way of networking (my husband’s friend that he met on a trip to Africa won an Oscar a few years ago), when he (white) was making these trips I…

i’m case and point. but i’m also grateful (and embarrassed).

Exactly. Every piece like that this that gets posted to (of course) Facebook someone has to come through on their high-horse about how much they worked hard and had to support themselves and the rest of us millennials don’t know a hard days work. But, maybe because I don’t have very many white friends, that’s not what…

There is a stigma in openly admitting that you are assisted by your family members and not your own bootstraps. I have lied, or modified the truth, in many times, to show solidarity for people who struggle, and also because, there is a lot of negativity and judgment against saying “well that sucks for you my mom and…